Music-roll.



E. G. HISGOCK- MUSIC ROLL.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 4, 1910.

Patented Jan.28, 1913.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EMORY C. HISCOGK, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO W. W. KIMBALL COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

MUSIC-ROLL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 28, 1913.

Application filed November 4, 1910. Serial No. 590,603.

Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of.

Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Music-Rolls, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention relates to improvements in music rolls such as are employed in automatic or mechanical piano players.

As is well known, the hygrometric conditions of the atmosphere affect the recordsheets when rolled up on the spools, causing the roll to expand or lengthen when moist, and contract or shorten when dry. Hence various means and devices have been suggested and employed whereby the spool on which the sheet music-roll is wound may automatically vary in length with the variations in the length of the paper roll so as to insure at all times the smooth winding of the paper on the spool.

The main object of the present invention I is to provide an improved and simplified music-roll wherein the spool is automati cally extensible or contractible according to the variations in the length of the paper roll wound thereon.

In accordance with my invention, I make the body of the spool in two or more sections that are telescopically engaged in such a manner as to be free to move toward and from each other but are adapted to rotate in unison from a rotary impulse imparted to one of said sections; and the inner end of the paper sheet is secured for a slight distance inwardly of its longitudinal edges to the outer end portions of the sectional body of the spool, the inner end portion of the paper sheet to the extent of several turns being preferably thus secured permanently to the body of the spool. As the spool sections are capable of lengthwise movement toward and from each other, but are drivingly connected for rotary movement, it follows that the spool can accommodate itself to the lengthwise contracting and expanding movements of the paper roll and at the same time be driven from one end only.

My invention and its mode of operation will be readily understood when considered in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is an elevational view of the naked spool. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal axial section of the spool showing the paper-roll wound thereon and the sections of the spool slightly expanded. Fig. 3 is an end view showing that end or head of the spool to which the driving clutch is attached.

Referring to the drawing, 1 and 2 designate two sections of a cylindrical spool body,

which may be made from stiff pasteboard,

card-board or the like.

3 designates a solid wood plug or connector which is secured within the inner end of the section 2 as by a pin 4 and projects from the inner end of the same, forming a bearing or support on which the corresponding inner end of the section 1 is adapted to be telescopically mounted. The two inner ends of the sections 1 and 2 meet in an oblique joint, 5, which insures the driving and driven relation between the two sections under rotative movement, while permitting a limited free relative endwise movement between the two sections.

6 designates the heads or flanges of the spool, which are preferably made of hard rubber composition and are secured to the ends of the spool body by means of inwardly extending hollow hubs or bosses 7 secured to the respective sections 1 and 2 by crosspins 8. As shown in Fig. 3, one of the heads 6 is formed with a transverse slot 9 forming the spool-member of the usual driving clutch.

10 designates the usual perforated recordsheet, the inner end portion of which is solid or imperforate for some extent and is wound upon and glued at its opposite edges to the outer ends of both sections 1 and 2 of the spool body just inwardly of the heads 6; the sheet being thus permanently secured to the spool body preferably to the extent of several turns around the latter.

As the two spool sections, of substantially equal extent, are free to move lengthwise relatively to each other to the extent permitted by the paper roll and are perma nently attached near their outer ends to the margins of the inner end portion of the sheet forming the roll, it follows that said spool sections will automatically accommodate themselves to the expanding and contracting movements of the paper roll lengthwise of the spool, separating slightly as the wound roll expands under moist conditions of the atmosphere and coming together against under the contracting pull of the wound roll as the latter dries out. The central plug 4 forms an ample support to maintain the perfect axial alinement of the two sections, and the oblique joint insures a relative driving engagement between the two sections, constituting, in effect, a clutch to transmit the rotative movement of one sec tion to the other While at the same time permitting a limited longitudinal separation and approach of the sections. Any other form of clutch which would permit the described relations between the sections might, of course, be employed, but the oblique joint is shown as the simplest embodiment of such a device. It may be noted, however, that where the paper is permanently attached to a spoolbody to the extent of several turns around the latter, the paper itself is suflicient to transmit the rotat-ive impulse from the driving to the driven section of the spool, without the aid of the clutch, and hence a clutch engagement of the inner or meeting ends of the spool sections may, in such a case, be dispensed with.

I claim 1. An extensible spool for music rolls, comprising two spool sections, heads secured to the outer ends thereof and both adapted for engagement with spool-supporting and driving mechanism, and a supporting member for the inner ends of said sections permanently secured in and to one of said sections and internally telescoping the other and maintaining said sections in axial alinement, the inner ends of said sections overlapping each other on said supporting member in relative driving relation and free to move toward and from each other to accom modate the expanding and contracting movements of a music-roll sheet wound thereon,

substantially as described.

2. An extensible spool for music rolls,

comprising two hollow spool sections, heads rigidly secured to the outer ends thereof and both adapted for engagement with spoolsupporting and driving mechanism, and a central plug permanently secured to 'and within, and projecting from the inner end of one of said sections and internally telescoping the inner end of the other of said sections and maintaining said sections in axial alinement, the inner ends of said sections overlapping each other on said plug in relative driving relation and free to move from and toward each other to accommodate the expanding and contracting movements of a music roll sheet wound thereon, substantially as described.

3. An extensible spool for music-rolls, comprising two hollow spool sections the inner ends of which meet in an oblique joint, heads secured to the outer ends of said spool sections, and a central plug secured in and projecting from the inner end of one of said sections and internally telescoping the inner end of the other of said sections, substantially as described.

4. A music-roll, comprising two hollow spool sections the inner ends of which meet in an oblique joint, heads secured in the outer ends of said spool sections, a central plug secured to and projecting from the inner end of one of said sections and internally telescoping the inner end of the other of said sections, and a music sheet having the opposite edges of its inner end ,portion secured to said sections just inwardly of the respective heads thereof, substantially as described.

EMORY O. HISCOGK.

Vitnesses v SAMUEL N. POND, DAISY C. THORSEN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

